“Well, before booking my room, I did use my connections to look into the passengers on the cruise ship. It wasn’t a coincidence that I ended up right next door to you, either. Boss Hứa, you’re an expert on haunted objects. I hope you’ll lend a hand if the need arises.”
I shook my head at once. “Officer Dương, count me out. As you can see, I’m just a frail young woman. If you have questions about haunted objects, I can answer one or two. But I don’t know the first thing about catching criminals, and I don’t want to get involved.”
Handling haunted objects is no problem, but when it comes to dealing with criminals—especially people who know how to create haunted objects—I know exactly what I’m capable of.
“That’s all I needed to hear.” Dương Kỳ smiled.
“I know how to deal with criminals, and you know haunted objects. We’d make a great team.”
“A great team?” I shook my head immediately.
“I don’t need a partner. Officer Dương, I need to get some rest.”
“All right, then. I’ll… be going?” Dương Kỳ pointed toward the door.
I gave him a sidelong look. “Were you planning not to?”
“I’m going, I’m going.” Dương Kỳ laughed, got to his feet, and headed for the door.
I opened the door, and the moment he stepped out and turned around, I slammed it shut.
Dương Kỳ was slender, with somber eyes and decent looks. He just wasn’t my type.
After seeing him off, I filled the tub with water, scattered rose petals over it, and climbed in. I watched my tablet while admiring the ocean view outside the window. I had to admit, Dương Kỳ knew how to enjoy himself. Soaking in the tub while watching TV really was relaxing.
I was watching a TV show and reached for the glass of juice beside me, but I slipped and sank beneath the water.
The tub wasn’t deep; there was just a little too much water in it. I swallowed a mouthful and started to reach for the edge so I could sit up, but my hand grasped at empty air. It felt as if I were falling into a bottomless abyss.
“Ugh!”
Something was wrong. It was pitch-black all around me, with only a faint glimmer of light on the water above. The water had turned icy cold.
Panicking, I swam upward. I surfaced quickly, but when I opened my eyes, I was still in the bathtub. Everything around me was in disarray, and the lights kept flickering.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
Three sudden knocks came from the round porthole beside me. I turned and saw nothing but seawater outside, with a few bodies drifting past.
Dương Kỳ was in the water. He pounded on the porthole twice, then pressed a ship diagram against it. A red circle stood out on the map. He was clearly trying to get a message to me.
While I was still looking at the diagram, Dương Kỳ exhaled his last breath and started swimming upward. Then a broken mast on the ship suddenly fell, dragging him down into the endless, pitch-black water.
“Dương Kỳ!” I screamed in panic.
The whole ship groaned and creaked as if it were being crushed. Just as I stood there, unsure what to do, the round window beside me gave way under the pressure and exploded, sending shards of glass into my face.
At the same time, a cat meowed right beside my ear. “Meow!”
The shrill sound made me gasp, and I swallowed another mouthful of water. But when I grabbed the edge of the tub and sat up, everything had returned to normal. The horrifying vision of the ship sinking had vanished.
My tablet was still safe on its stand, and Than, the little black cat, was perched on the edge of the tub, rubbing its head against me.
My heart was pounding. I hurried out, washed up, and changed into comfortable athletic clothes. There was something wrong with this ship.
I had just seen the ship sinking, completely submerged in seawater and plunging downward. But in the blink of an eye, I was back in the present.
I thought back to when I boarded the ship: the little girl in red had shown symptoms of drowning, and I remembered what she’d said. Maybe it had all been true. The ship was about to sink, and everyone aboard would die.
I put Than in my backpack, left the room, and hurried to Dương Kỳ’s door to knock hard. But he didn’t seem to be in his room.
Just then, the steward’s station opened, and my personal steward came out with Dương Kỳ’s steward. When his steward saw me, he asked respectfully, “Miss Hứa, what can I do for you? I’m the personal steward for Mr. Dương’s luxury suite. He isn’t in his room right now. If you need something, I can pass along a message.”
“What’s Dương Kỳ’s phone number?” I pulled out my phone.
He’d given me his business card before, but I hadn’t brought it with me, and I couldn’t remember the number.
The steward replied politely, “I’m sorry, Miss Hứa, but we can’t disclose our guests’ personal information.”
“This is a matter of life and death! I need his number right now!” I said urgently.
The steward looked troubled. Just then, my personal steward came over and took my arm. “Miss Hứa, I think Mr. Dương went to get something to eat. How about I take you to the restaurant? You might run into him there.”
“Run into him?”
My personal steward was a young woman in her twenties, with her hair in a ponytail and a neat, professional-looking business outfit. She winked at me, clearly signaling that I should just follow her.
I followed her out of the hallway. She turned back and said with a faint smile, “Mr. Dương’s phone number is…”
I entered the number right away and was about to call. Seeing my expression, my personal steward smiled and stepped back a few paces.
The phone rang twice before someone answered.
“Boss Hứa, miss me already?” Dương Kỳ asked.
I got straight to the point. “Officer Dương, where are you? We need to meet. This is a matter of life and death, and I have to tell you in person.”
“Deck six, the seafood buffet.” He told me where he was.
I hung up. The steward for the luxury suite came over and asked respectfully, “Miss Hứa, is there anything else I can do for you?”
“I want to go to the seafood buffet on deck six,” I replied.
The steward immediately raised a hand and led the way.
Before long, she had led me down to deck six in the elevator.
The cruise ship had ten decks in all. My room was on the top deck, deck ten, while deck six was right in the middle and housed the dining areas.
The steward led me to the seafood buffet. Dương Kỳ was seated inside, and when he saw me, he waved.
I sat down. When I saw a server approaching, I waved her away. “No, thank you.”
“Is it that urgent? You can’t even spare a moment to take a sip of water?” Dương Kỳ slid the glass of juice he’d already ordered over to me.
I took a deep breath, leaned close, and lowered my voice. “This ship may be about to sink.”
Dương Kỳ’s expression changed at once.
The cruise ship carried around fifteen hundred people, passengers and crew alike. It had departed from a port in a coastal city in Huaxia, and after twenty-four hours at sea, it would reach the peninsula before continuing on to Hokkaido. The ship had been out of port for over three hours. If it sank, it would be a catastrophe that claimed the lives of fifteen hundred people.
“Are you sure?” Dương Kỳ looked me straight in the eye.
I hesitated for a moment, then recounted everything that had just happened.
Dương Kỳ’s expression grew complicated.
“You don’t believe me?” I saw that he was still sitting there, with no intention of taking action.
Dương Kỳ shook his head. “It’s not that I don’t believe you. We encountered something strange last time, so of course I believe your judgment is sound. It’s just that this ship belongs to the peninsula, and according to its route, it’s probably in international waters by now. Convincing the captain to change course will be difficult. Can you determine when the ship will sink?”
“When?”